THE FUTURE IS HANDMADE
Ankit Swami | 442 | ID
Who are we? Humans? But when we use the term ‘nature’ we do not consider humans a part of it. We make ourselves different from what nature is, and that is where we lack empathy towards "nature." We, as individuals, are imagining that after death we will go to heaven, but what about this living heaven, Earth. We must break through these mental heavens and ask ourselves, "Where are we?" Who are we? And where do we want to go? As we all know because it is popular around the internet, Elon Musk is planning to build a city on Mars and many spaceship trials are happening and billions of dollars are spent. When I look at this, I feel that by using so many resources of this world he is already working against it and ruining it where he could use the money and resources to improve this world, this heaven. If it continues we will need other planets to move and again ruin that too and this cycle will continue. We are moving so blindly with the thought of progress that many do not know where this is going to end. Is there any standard idea of what progress is? I guess not. Because what we have today is not enough. In order to be more resourceful, we aspire to achieve progress. But it is a cycle of continuous need for something that we think will make us happy. We look up to something that will make us happy, but when we are at that level of fulfillment, we do not stop. We again look up to something, and it continues.
We, as a generation, have been the most comfortable generation on earth since its beginning. In the past, people aspired to have a good meal to fill their stomachs.Many things we have today were not even imagined by them. This does not mean we should stop innovating or developing, but conscious thought is required for the development and innovation we are looking forward to. A conscious and sensitive human will make choices and decisions that are best for him or her without damaging the surrounding environment, which can include other humans, animals, or anything we can see around. We know that our hearing or visual ability works within a range, and that we can see and hear within that range. but that doesn't mean that nothing exists beyond that range. If we think about it, it is our ego that makes us believe that only things we can see or experience exist. Many things depend on how sensitive we are. We might not be able to see the poison in our air, but that doesn't make it clean air. The air quality is getting worse by the time. We are breathing it, but an unconscious being is okay with it. We, as an ecosystem, began with a disastrous beginning of the earth; life began on earth, and this earth, from a ball of poisonous gases, transformed into a marvelous beauty.However, humans have once again turned it into a ball of poisonous gases. Many people might argue that there are other factors that ruin our environment apart from the human factors, but the point is not that. We saw how nature was healing itself during the COVID period, and we could see such large changes in our environment that we couldn't have imagined before. We had an example of how it is possible to make our air better, but what did we do? Nothing much, really.
homeproject. (2009, May 12). HOME [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU
We think what we can buy with the money is ours to use and exploit because that is what we have standardised as a society. We follow such people and aspire to be like them and idealise them. A person who is making more money in his life justifies the fact that he is supposed to use all of his means because it is theirs.But where is our responsibility towards society and nature? What about the rights over the resources? We do not have the right to waste electricity simply because we can afford to pay for it. Because someone else is paying some price for that electricity. Many people were displaced as a result of the electricity production. The nonrenewable resources are burned for that electricity, and the by-product of that process is what we are all inhaling into our bodies. We all need systemic thinking capabilities to understand our actions and their effects. If we understand cause and effect well and consider our rights over resources, we may not use resources relentlessly. What we do today will decide our future. We are too preoccupied with our so-called ambitions to notice where we are going. Being very ambitious is also applauded in our society, but I doubt if it is like that. It is someone's ambition that we remove the baggage of other considerations like 'nature’.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the IHME estimated 7 million and 6.7 million deaths per year, respectively, because of the air pollutants.(1) This is only a small portion of the problem; there are many like it, and many of them are irreversible. This is the present scenario, which is already very devastating, but the future can be worse if it continues like this.
There are many aspects to which we all must be sensitive about. As an example, consider the use of a toothbrush. It is suggested that you should not use a toothbrush for more than 3 months however we tend to change it every month. which is a very short time span if we consider the material. Most people are using plastic made toothbrushes. The life span of the material used is too long compared to 3 months. And the degradation time required for the nylon is more than 30-40 years. For such a product, we should use natural organic materials that are biodegradable and do not harm the environment like this. The introduction of the plastic material was never speculated correctly. Plastics products made years ago are still on earth and degrading slowly somewhere in our water bodies and soil.
1.Data Review: How many people die from air pollution? (n.d.). Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/data-review-air-pollution-deaths
Microplastic pollution has been detected in human blood for the first time, with scientists finding the tiny particles in almost 80% of the people tested.(2)The discovery shows the particles can travel around the body and may lodge in organs. The impact on health is as yet unknown. But researchers are concerned as microplastics cause damage to human cells in the laboratory and air pollution particles are already known to enter the body and cause millions of early deaths a year.Huge amounts of plastic waste are dumped in the environment and microplastics now contaminate the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans.People were already known to consume the tiny particles via food and water as well as breathing them in, and they have been found in the faeces of babies and adults.Toxic chemicals from the industry are contaminating the water. All these things are working as a catalyst to the end of our society and nature. Whatever we see around will end someday, it is in our hands how we want it to end.
2. Carrington, D. (2022, March 25). Microplastics found in human blood for first time. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/24/microplastics-found-in-human-blood-for-first-time
The way we are using our resources as if they are unlimited, is a big concern. We have limited resources, no matter how many there are. But like this, using them so drastically will surely come to an end way before our predictions. August 8 was Earth Overshoot Day 2016, marking the day when human-kind exhausted Earth's budget for this year and entered ecological deficit: consuming natural resources faster than the planet is capable of regenerating them.Excessive consumption, especially in developed countries, is one of the main causes of the ecological deficit. 20% of the world's population is responsible for the consumption of 80% of the planet's resources,(3) which symbolizes the great decompensation in the social and economic sphere, especially the food system.We are depleting the planet's resources as if these are the last few generations. What about the future generations—what are we leaving for them? highly contaminated water, air, and land? This is the destiny we want to leave for our children. If the current resource consumption rate continues to grow in a similar manner, it is estimated that by 2030, in just over a decade, two planets will be needed to meet the demand for consumption,(3) since the world population will consume every year twice the resources that the Earth can generate over the same period. This is our future, which we are making with our own hands.
3. Natural resources deficit. (n.d.). https://www.activesustainability.com/environment/natural-resources-deficit/
There are many things we can do to change this future, like adopt crafts that are generally made of natural materials. For example, we can use bamboo brushes, and ‘Sal tree’ leaf plates and bowls. There are many better alternatives to use. But in the end, it all depends on the intentions of people. We need to start reusing, reducing, and recycling in order to manage the mess we have already made. We live in a society where one group of people is deprived of food, clothes, and other basic needs, while the other group has so much that they waste it without thinking once. The clothes we wear, especially jeans, are not easily degradable, so either we should reuse them or donate them. These small steps can make a difference. Our earth, our mother nature is degrading by the time we are abusing it.
As designers, we have the capacity to understand the system and cause-and-effect relationships better than many others. To solve the problem of degrading environmental conditions, we can make better campaigns to make people empathetic towards nature. We all need to understand the consequences of our actions (that harm nature). As designers, we can make better systems to protect the environment. When we look around, we don't find any working systems for waste management. No segregation system is available. No proper reuse and recycle system is there at the level of society. Recycling is not part of our daily lives. We don't think about our electronic waste. So we need a system for all these things so that many pollutants are stopped before they harm more. We all need to instil system thinking in our lives. It makes you more observant and gives you a direction to think about the causes of certain actions, which helps you find better solutions.
We need to start working on our actions, our perspective towards nature and we need to start considering ourselves as a part of this ecosystem, not a superior entity. Let's change our thinking towards our planet and its resources and make this heaven a heaven. Let us build our future for a better tomorrow.
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